Anthony Murnane, Deputy Foreign Editor, considers the role of old and new media in the Raoul Moat case.
For a week he was labelled Britain's Most Wanted. As the hunt for Raoul Moat took place, he also became the media's most wanted.
He was a damaged man whom police were warned had been making threats before he was released from jail.
However, the dots were not joined and very soon he was armed and on the attack.
He injured his own ex-girlfriend, Samantha Stobbart, and then shot her new partner Chris Brown, who died. Moat also injured Pc David Rathband who said he saw nothing - no emotion - when he looked into Moat's eyes.
The gunman then went to ground in England's northeast.
Coverage
Page after page of tabloid coverage turned him into a monster.
Words like 'maniac' and 'brute' were used to describe him, journalists and presenters went into the wild with survival experts to recreate Moat's living conditions, 24-hour news channels had hours to fill. It became a manhunt.
The news week ended in further bloodshed, when Raoul Moat died by a riverside in Rothbury in the early hours of a wet Saturday morning.
Had he been reading the papers? Could he have been listening to radio stations or watching TV with their psychologists and retired policemen talking about his situation, talking about the details of what the police were doing? What impact could this have had on him?
Sympathy
Then came the tributes.
Flowers and wreaths were left at the scene of his death. A Facebook page appeared with sympathy and support for the gunman, aswell as criticism of the police.
Over 20,000 people registered on the site to express their views.
At Prime Minister's Questions, David Cameron was urged to contact Facebook to take down the page. Mr Cameron said 'there should be no sympathy for the dead gunman.'
Facebook stood its ground.
It said many people would find some of the topics discussed on the site 'distasteful', but added 'that is not a reason in itself to stop a debate from happening'.
Facebook said the issue had dominated public debate in newspapers, online across the internet, between people in the pub, on the phone and at work. And new media was going to play its role.
Many questions remain about this case.
The police service must examine every aspect of the operation, while for newspapers, TV and new media, there are questions and issues to consider.
Did the blanket coverage help feed Moat's activities?
Was too much information in the public domain?
Should the media have been more sensitive and less intrusive?
Did editors at base consider their staff might be in the line of fire?
Should new media outlets and social networking sites like Facebook have an editorial role?
Anthony Murnane, Deputy Foreign Editor
